FSCJ, St. Johns River State accept governor's $10,000 degree challenge

Florida State College at Jacksonville and St. Johns River State College have joined all the Florida state colleges in accepting a bachelor’s degree challenge from Gov. Rick Scott.

In November, Scott asked college officials to find academic programs that led to a bachelor’s degree and would cost students no more than $10,000.

At that time, St. Johns River State officials did not know how the school would meet the governor’s wish. However, on Monday, college President Joe Pickens said he was committed to offering a $10,000 degree in fall 2014.

Will Holcombe, FSCJ’s interim president, said the college is developing a new logistics degree that would be less than $10,000. FSCJ still needs to have the program approved by the state education board, but Holcombe would like to see the degree offered in January 2014 or the fall 2014 semester. If the logistics degree goes well, Holcombe said the college would look into dropping the cost of some of FSCJ’s existing bachelor degrees.

This school year, tuition for a bachelor’s degree at FSCJ and St. Johns River State is more than $13,000, not including student fees.

Florida Democrats have criticized Scott’s $10,000 challenge, saying the Republican wants to a watered-down, Wal-Mart-style quality of higher education. Scott maintains that a cheaper degree is better off for students in the long run.

“Higher education is key to helping our students succeed in the 21st century economy and to grow jobs in Florida,” Scott said in a written statement. “It is important our students can get an affordable education, and our state colleges have stepped up to the challenge to find innovate ways to provide a quality education at a great value.”

Maybe all the students they shafted and can't qualify for financial aid anymore -you know the 1700 grants wrongly awarded (and counting) that either pay them back or can't get financial aide anymore - those people- perhaps they can afford $10,000 out of pocket to come back now? THANKS FSCJ!

This is the same Governor Scott who was whining about how the state didn't need any more Anthropology majors but needed more Engineering majors. That was about a year ago.

For 10 grand you get a reasonably well trained technician. Not that we need many of those anymore thanks to big corporations and government sending all the manufacturing jobs overseas. If it hasn't been outsourced yet, just give it time. You want to make a good living as a technician? Go to India.

So at best we'll get well trained office laborers with degrees in the likes of education, business, and accounting. That's just the sort of thing Scotty understands.